Pilot
Pilot is the third main character of Romantically Apocalyptic. He is also one of the four original main characters, the others being Captain, Sniper, and Engineer. Out of all four, Pilot is the most mentally unstable one, subject to surreal fantasy and daydreams. It was revealed in a diary entry that he was once a fighter pilot. Pilot has also been revealed to be a malfunctioning DEX cyborg. A DEX is the name of a series of manufactured robots which are partly consisting of organic parts. Their purpose is to blend in with their human-like appearence in order to investigate temporal incidents. According to the on site wiki after being damaged by an attack on ANNET Captain convinced him that his name is Pilot. Possibly making Zee Captain responsible for Pilot's current personality and state of mind. Personality Pilot's obsessions include tormenting the Sniper and serving Captain. He often hallucinates, such as when he discovered a toy airplane and began to fly it around, imagining himself as being in a terse dog-fight. He is infatuated with Captain, and believes that Sniper wants to steal his leader from him. As such, he often devises ridiculous schemes to get rid of him, including a plot to feed him to a whale. When Pilot planned to found a "Church of Captain," he tied Sniper to a couch and tried to convert him. Pilot was not pleased when Snippy refused. Snippy states in one of his journals that Pilot was once in the Army, which seems to be in keeping with his Green color motif, as Stalky, who was also in the army, had Green goggles before his 'transformation.' Pilot also writes that he once had a "Blue Tiara", a headband civilians wore to access ANNET, but that his is broken. It still seems to get a weak signal from ANNET, and Pilot refers to it as "A ticket to a one-way trip without a return policy," which suggests that he at least remembers it is dangerous. It is possible that Pilot's mental state is a direct result of him breaking his neural interface before ANNET was able to fully take over his mind during its takeover. Pilot seems to have a strong aversion to ANNET and all things related to her. He seems to choose not to remember his past at time, possibly because he'd rather focus on the "wonders of Captain," or possible because he knows that his past is unpleasant. Pilot also seems unaware that he is a cyborg, or possibly a robot, and is intent on proving that he is a human. Pilot avoids all things that could reconnect him to ANNET when possible. He was reconnected by force. As of the Annet's Reawakening Story Arc, the Pilot's personality has appeared to have taken a dramatic shift as he has been either reprogrammed by Annet, or she has unlocked his previously "hidden" personality, a marauding machine capable of leading an army of minions to destroy an enemy, in this case Sniper. After he was severed from ANNET's control again his personality changed again. While he still dislikes Snippy very much, he also has a driving desire to be his friend and to help Snippy "Discover the magic of friendship." Most of his tensions with Snippy now stem from the fact that his sword is lodged in Snippy's chest. Pilot sees this as Snippy having borrowed his sword, but he's not "a good neighbor" because he hasn't returned it in a timely fashion. Equipment In all of his appearances, the Pilot wears a leather jacket, a vest, USSR PO-1M aviator goggles, a VSS Mig leather helmet, and a USSR MIG Pilot KM32 oxygen mask with a tube running to an unseen location beneath his coat. His goggles are green, and green is the color associated with him. He has wielded a jagged katana to chop off the limbs of The Biomass and fighting against the ladybug. Pilot seems to have a stuffed puffin toy, whom he calls Mr. Kittyhawk. But considering that Mr. Kittyhawk informed The Biomass of his location, we can assume that Pilots relationship with Mr. Kittyhawk is strained. Appearance Pilot has never been seen without his gas mask and headgear in the comic. In the Annet's Reawakening Story Arc, it was shown what Pilot appeared as before the atomic war. He appears to have blonde hair, and commonly wore black clothing with green. Pilot in the pre-apocalypse is shown to wear a new-aged jacket, like what the Sniper wears, except in an all black design with green metal/plastic arm protectors going from his shoulders to his wrist cuffs on the sides of his arms and a green symbol on the back that appears to glow. He largly maintains this design in the post-apocalyptic world, except with a pilot's vest instead of a new-aged jacket. His pre-apocalyptic shoes were black colored shoes with lights in the soles on the side that lit-up green, while in the post-apocalyptic world he wears what appears to be military-styled boots. He wore a motorcycle helmet that heavily resembles his post-apocalyptic pilot's helmet, but the green eye plates were combined into one, instead of two separate glass plates. Skills Aside from his presumed flying skills, Pilot has been shown to have the ability to jump ridiculously high and far. He displayed this ability in his attempt to rescue Sniper from the clutches of the Biomatrix. In addition, he is skilled with a sword and was able to cut off a few of Cancer's tentacles before being captured and trapped with Sniper. Snippy thinks that Pilot attained these skills while in the army. It is also worth noting that Engineer originally called Pilot a "Green Ninja" after witnessing his skills. As Pilot is a cyborg (his "Species" is identified as a DEX cyborg) he has superhuman strength and agility. Many of his more technological abilities were most likely shut down when he was severed from ANNET's servers. Role in the Story Christophorus Hatchenson was an intern in a G-Dir product manufacturing factory. He starting thinking someone switched his tie for a pink one, and quit his job becoming a Private Investigator. Hence the "Pi" in his name. He became a DEX somehow, possibly after falling into debt. Pilot was a DEX who was hired to hunt down Charles Snippy. He lost his face to a pineapple bomb. He found his current "face" in a history museum of past wars. He was found by Zee Captain and convinced to help Zee Captain. He bombed Eureka with Captain, as stated in the wiki on the RA comic site. Also, on pg. 26, the nuclear bombs state that a faceless DEX (Pilot) and a person with a Purple Mask (Captain) obeyed the Admin's orders and dropped them. This might perhaps contribute to understanding some of his mental instability a bit more; assuming he was relatively sane while he was in the Army. Pilot mentions in the diary entry that the "one million voices of Eureka still sing in my cranium. They ask me to stop... I know that they are all just dust now, and what has been done cannot be retracted." This refers to the fact that while wearing ANNET's headband or being in the range of one of her transmitter towers during his mission at Eureka, Pilot was actually able to hear the thoughts of the people he bombarded, which likely drove him to insanity. The top panel in might also refer to his discharge from the Army and his interactions with Captain, as he is holding either a picture of Captain or he is video-chatting with him. One picture refers to him possibly being arrested and later escaping his pursuers. In the Annet's Reawakening Arc, it should be noted that he has been either reformatted by Annet or reprogramed to obey her commands, amassing an army of Annet's Zombie Minions and beginning a pursuit of the Captain and his group of survivors. It has also been suggested that Pilot was an assassin sent out by a health insurance company to destroy the Unscannable One. Category:Characters Category:Survivors Category:Machines